Chennai's Space Kidz India targets Historic All Women Lunar Mission

By: WE Staff | Saturday, 14 December 2024

Chennai-based space startup Space Kidz India is planning a historic lunar mission with an all-women team. The initiative, scheduled for September 2026, will bring together girl students from 108 countries, especially those in classes 8 and 9, to collaborate with the team of Space Kidz in building a spacecraft for the moon.

The 80-kg satellite will comprise an orbiter, a lander, and a propulsion module. Targeting a controlled crash landing on the lunar surface, if the mission goes through, Space Kidz will become the first Indian private entity to conduct such a mission.

Founder and CEO Srimathy Kesan sketched out the ambitious plan, citing its global and educational scope. "We will educate 12,000 girls in satellite technology through online sessions. One student from every country will then join us in India to co-create the spacecraft," she said.

Space Kidz gained recognition in February 2023 through its AzaadiSat mission, where 750 girls from Indian government schools designed a satellite that was launched by ISRO's Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV-D2). Key supporters of AzaadiSat included Hexaware Technologies, Ananth Technologies, Lumina Datamatics, and NITI Aayog.

For this lunar project, Space Kidz plans to collaborate with international educational institutions and global players. Further details will be revealed by January. The budget for the mission will be $8-10 million, and it will be primarily funded through CSR initiatives.

The company has already signed into MoU with IN-SPACe, which would provide academic support, and it will take advantage of ISRO's PSLV for launching. The project would align with the Indian ethos of "Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam," or "the world is one family," in order to get every human being united.

Kesan emphasized that the mission will focus on the underprivileged students, thus making it diverse. The children will be trained for 120 hours, and final selections and project work will begin in January 2025.

This ambitious lunar mission will be a milestone for India's emerging private space sector, which has witnessed rapid growth after the 2020 government reforms in space. Over 250 space startups have emerged since then, marking the country's readiness for innovative contributions to the global space arena.